Chemical Weapons (Hansard, 18 April 2002)

§ Lord Rea
My Lords, I beg leave to ask a Question of which I have given private notice, namely:
What Her Majesty's Government's position will be at the special meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to be held at The Hague on 21st April, when it is anticipated that the United States will seek to unseat its long-standing—and highly effective—director-general, Sr Jose Bustani.

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I can confirm that a special conference of states parties to the chemical weapons convention will convene in The Hague on 21st April 2002 at the request of the United States to consider the appointment of the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Her Majesty's Government are still finalising their position. However, your Lordships should know that, at the meeting of the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on 22nd March, the United Kingdom supported a vote of no confidence in the director-general.

§ Lord Rea
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. However, does she agree that the real American objection to Sr Bustani is not to his failings, but to his very success? For example, he has increased the number of signatories to the chemical weapons 1078 convention from 87 to 140 in the past five years. Such is his success and his reputation for impartiality—quite apart from asking searching questions about the United States' own chemical weapons—that it is thought that he might be able to persuade Iraq to join and to adhere to the chemical weapons convention, rather than to allow the return of UNMOVIC, which Iraq considers to be US dominated. If that were the case, would it not remove a major pretext for US military intervention in Iraq, which appears to be the policy of the hawks in the United States Administration?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot agree with a great deal of my noble friend's conjecture. The director-general did indeed have some successes in the work that he undertook during his first period of office in establishing the OPCW and in establishing a world-wide verification regime. But, sadly, the organisation encountered financial difficulties early in 2001, for which the director-general must take a measure of responsibility. I cannot agree with the supposition that his period of office has been one of great success when those financial problems led, last year, to his not being able to maintain the appropriate level of inspections worldwide of military and commercial sites. As I understand it, towards the end of last year, the number of inspections fell by almost 50 per cent of the normal annual schedule. We made representations to the director-general on several occasions last year about our concerns at the decline in verification activity. I believe that that is what lies at the heart of the current difficulty.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, is the Minister aware that it is grossly unfair to serve these accusations in public on the director-general, when he has been given no formal opportunity to rebut them, either in the conference of states parties or in the executive council? Is it not contrary to natural justice that he should be charged in this public manner without being given an adequate opportunity to rebut the charges? Does the Minister agree that, if the US is allowed to intimidate and coerce other states, as it has done, into dismissing an international civil servant, it will undermine the independence of all international institutions? Do not the Government see a pattern developing with the attempts by the US Administration, not only against the director-general of the OPCW but also to undermine Mr Hans Blix, the head of UNMOVIC? Does the Minister further agree that, if this procedure continues, no international institution will be able to claim full independence?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords. I hope that the noble Lord is not bracketing me in what he describes as unfairness. When I am asked a Question in this House, I must give the Answer that I believe is accurate and which accurately reflects the position of Her Majesty's Government.
I indicated to the House that the Government are still finalising their position. The reason is that the Secretary of State has not come to a final decision. 1079 However. I felt it right in the circumstances to indicate to your Lordships how we had voted at the executive council. To have done anything else would have been misleading. I felt it right to give your Lordships some of the reasons for doing so, as I was asked to do. Her Majesty's Government were not alone with the United States in reaching that decision on a vote of no confidence during the executive meeting in March. Seventeen countries out of the 40 represented voted for a motion of no confidence; 18 abstained; and five opposed the motion of no confidence. That is a fairly telling list of votes.

§ Lord Richard
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that it would perhaps be more profitable for the House to consider the British reasons for not accepting this gentleman and for voting for a motion of no confidence in him, rather than over-speculating as to the motivation of the United States in this matter? Will my noble friend reiterate and clarify the reasons why the British Government could not support him?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, as I indicated, the organisation encountered some financial difficulties early last year. As I understand it from the briefings that I have received, those difficulties were rooted in structural problems within the organisation and in the fact that some states parties had not paid their contributions on time; and there was a degree of mismanagement in the organisation. We and other states parties wanted to get to the bottom of the problem. As I have indicated, we were concerned about the verification procedures and about maintaining the level of verification, both military and commercial. We asked the director-general to cooperate with an effort to get to the bottom of the problems, and I understand that he did not co-operate in the way that we would have expected.

§ Baroness Williams of Crosby
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that both the United Kingdom Government and the United States Government made their contributions to the organisation on time?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I shall have to check on that point. The United Kingdom Government have a very good record in these matters, and I shall check on the further matter.

Lord Bruce of Donington
My Lords, it is often the custom in this House for reference to be made to briefings. Will the noble Baroness give the House an assurance that members of the Government do not invariably rely on briefings, but on what they themselves think?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I hate to disabuse the noble Lord, but I will be frank with him and tell him that I was not aware of the difficulty until I saw the Private Notice Question of the noble Lord, Lord Rea. I would not expect to be aware of the difficulty because it does not lie within my specific area of responsibility. However, my right 1080 honourable friend the Secretary of Slate is aware, as is my honourable friend Mr Bradshaw. They have frontline responsibilities for the matters, but I argue for them in your Lordships' House. I would not wish any noble Lord to be under any illusion at all: I have relied on official briefings in giving my answer to your Lordships.

§ Lord Rea
My Lords, my noble friend spoke of the organisation's financial difficulty in fulfilling its inspection tasks. Is she aware that the United States put a cap on its funding, but was then one of the nations that failed to pay its dues?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
No, my Lords, I was not aware of the United States' position in that respect; nor am I aware of the funding coming forward from any other individual country. However, I can say that the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy. France and the United Kingdom together provide 70 per cent of the organisation's funding. I have not been able to answer in detail the question put by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, or that put by my noble friend. I shall, if I may, take away those points, write to the noble Baroness and my noble friend, and place a copy of the answer in the Library of the House.